Restaurant Help - Lisbon, Evora, Obidos
 

Now that we have finalized our itinerary and made our hotel reservations (Hotel Bairro Alto in Lisbon, Hotel da Cartuxa in Evora and Casa das Senhoras Rainhas in Obidos) I am busy coming up with our day to day itinerary and restaurant picks; starting with the restaurants.

I have read through the LDC threads but we the LDC will be in NY while we are in Lisbon. And when we travel we like to eat in casual places during the day but like to splurge on wonderful restaurants for dinner. I have been doing some research and have come up with the following choices for Lisbon - we have four nights there:

A Travessa - I think we are set on this one
Casa da Comida
Olivier
Tavares Rico
A Salgardeiras - suggested by our hotel but I can't find any information on it.
Lisboa a Noite
Doca Peixe - I think we are leaning towards this restaurant.
Eleven
Which four would you choose?

We have not come up with much for Evora, and we only have one night there. Our hotel suggested the following: Tasquinha do Oliveira, Quarta Feira, and Fialho. Which would you choose?

And in Obidos, our hotel only suggested the restaurant IN the hotel - Cozinha das Rainhas. Any suggestions for Obidos?

And one final dining question - what is a good time to make a dinner reservation? We tend to eat late. Last year we were in Spain and none of our dinner reservations was for before 10 pm. But a couple of months ago were were in Dublin and we found that people there ate much earlier - our reservations were for between 8:30 and 9. What is a common time for making a dinner reservation at a nice restaurant? As I said, we prefer to eat late - it gives us more time to enjoy the day sightseeing. Thanks, Susan

I'm probably not the best authority on these restaurants, but since no one else has weighed in yet, here are a few opinions. I have only been to two of the ones you mention though.

I thought Casa da Comida was a bit stuffy and precious and the food not "creative" if that makes sense.

I liked Eleven a lot, the food was great, and I thought the atmosphere was very comfortable. And the view is terrific.

Not to complicate things, but I would add Terreiro do Paco to the list. www.terreiropaco.com It is kind of a "nouveau Portuguese" restaurant, using fresh local produce, and I thought it was just terrific. I think the scallops I had as an appetizer were the best I've had anywhere. It has the added benefit of being in a beautiful, remodeled building right on the Terreiro do Paco square. (if you go, note that the downstairs is the casual less fancy place, with an outside terrace as well, but the restaurant proper is on the second floor).

Sorry I can't comment about Evora and Obidos. We ate in the pousada in Obidos and it was ok, fine, nothng to jump up and down about. And I don't have names of places in Evora.

Hope that others with more knowledge will jump in here.

In Evora I would definitely cast my vote for Fialho - everything was delicious and beautifully presented. Afterward, try a moonlight stroll of the town and the ruins, ending the evening with a drink (try the cherry liquor) at the atmospheric pousada.

For the midday meal in Lisbon: I like some Brewery restaurants such as la Portugalia. There's one of those on the Quayside less than 500m west of Cais do Sodre - great views of the bridge and river traffic. There are at least two others: one (the original) on Almirante Reis and the other (newest) in the Columbo Shopping mall
The Sagres brewery building has a small Marisqueria on the corner.

Of the restaurants you mention (in Évora) I would choose Fialho(though its expensive). But I think "Cozinha de Sto Humberto" (in Rua da Moeda, near Praça do Giraldo) is quite a good option and less expensive. Here in Portugal its just like in Dublin, we eat at 8:30 /9:00

typical dinner in lisbon is 10 and later-=if you want to go to quinze nits, la dolce herminia, or la fonda,all of which I would recommend as good value and inexpensive with table linen, you need to line up at 8pm or try a late lunch around 300pm for the same value and quality and less foot traffic

correction-the restaurants i listed are nice but in barcelona-in lisbon, try bota alta and cafe gavetas, both in baixa and within a few blocks of each other.

From my Portugal trip report:

Évora is an interesting town, with the remains of a Roman temple and a ghoulish ossuary chapel. We were not there at an ideal time, as it was stormy and rainy, which puts a crimp on wandering about the town. We ate at a fine restaurant, O Antão, which probably had the best appetizers of our whole trip. Being only three, we could not eat all of them, and did not touch the plate of pressunto or the cheeses (eat one piece and you pay for the rest).

For the full trip report and suggestions of restaurants in Lisbon, see:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34875899